1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of process quality and risk assessment and, more specifically, to operational process quality and risk assessment in connection with financial services, and investment management organizations.
2. Background Information
Businesses which provide financial or investment management services are subject to a wide range of legal requirements which apply to their operational processes. Such requirements, which are typically statutory, regulatory or contractual in nature, govern or impact most aspects of the operations of such businesses. While some of these requirements are applicable to the business as a whole, many of them are applicable at the level of a single account holder or single account.
Under ideal conditions, a business should be in compliance with all legal requirements at all times. However, in a large enterprise which is maintaining hundreds of thousands or millions of accounts, and processing tens or hundreds of millions of transactions, it is foreseeable that good faith mistakes will occur which represent at least technical violations of one or more legal requirements. Of course, there is also the possibility of deliberate wrongdoing which results in a violation of a legal requirement and may constitute a crime.
Regardless of the underlying cause of a failure to comply with a legal requirement, the business may face substantial liability to aggrieved account holders or other businesses which are parties to particular transactions. In addition, regulatory agencies may assess sanctions. To avoid or at least minimize the possibility of such liability, a business needs to know, at a given point in time or over a selected time period, to what degree it is in compliance with pertinent legal requirements. Stated another way, a business needs a capability to assess its operational process quality and risk.